They Said You Weren't Real
by athousandtrees
Summary: In which Sammy Evans dreams of flying through the stars with his imaginary friend. Dr Who!AU Blam/Evanderson. Inspired by a graphic I saw on Tumblr. Bear with me I've just boarded this ship. ;


Sammy Evans had always been interested in the stars and the unknown. He read comic books under the covers at night about aliens who enslaved planets and people who travelled through space, finding new galaxies, new universes. It was the stuff of science fiction and fantasy that excited Sammy to no end, would make him draw for himself and only himself. No one else, no one else saw, not even mommy and daddy. But he never thought he was good enough; not as good as the people who made the comic books. How did they think of these things? Of course, Sammy knew that humans weren't the only beings in the universe but; how did the comic-book people imagine all this stuff? Make it sound and feel so _real_? He needed inspiration, that's all he needed. Something or someone to make him want to create worlds not just for himself but for everyone else to enjoy, to explore and to feel what he felt when he thought about the possibility that_ we are not alone._

And then just as he wished for Sammy got that inspiration at his doorstop; a man who would show him the stars and the unknown; a man with jet black hair and a different coloured bow tie for everyday. It was hard to understand because Sammy was only seven years old. But he would always remember, because it had felt just as real as when he read his comic books, or when he looked through his telescope. He had been so close to stars that he could almost touch them. He had seen aliens on other planets and even said hello to them. This was so much better than just looking up, something that Sammy Evans did every night in his back yard at night. Staring, just staring, hoping for the man to come back with his little blue box and show him everything once again.

And then Sammy became Sam and he moved around a lot with his family and two new additions to the family, and Sam worried that the man in the blue box wouldn't find him again. His mother and father had worried, all this talk of space as if he'd actually been up there, and they way he talked about 'going back', like he was from another world, and the way he talked about this imaginary friend as if he was real. Sam Evans went through countless sessions where he would tell the psychologist everything, how his imaginary friend was his inspiration. The psychologist had even read a few of his storyboards for his comics and had written in his notes that Sam was delusional; that he couldn't tell the difference between reality and the stuff in comics and science fiction.

The man was not real and neither was the blue box.

But no matter how many sessions or therapy, the blue box and the man and the stars never drifted from Sam Evans' mind. They stuck with him, for a long time until he had given up looking up. He was not coming back, the man with a smile that told Sammy that _everything is going to be okay_, and that _there is nothing to worry about_, and _you're not alone _was not coming back to Sammy or Sam. And one day Sam took his comics out of his draw and burnt them all in the yard, watched them burn and it hurt, because this was his inspiration that he was making disappear. But he deserved it, thinking about the stars and a flying, travelling blue box which he had obviously made up in his head. He had realised now.

But after a year, when Sam Evans was seventeen and home alone for the day, he found his comics in perfect condition on his desk, with a note that read 'everything's going to be okay, Sammy.' Sam smiled and moved his hands over the comics, making sure they were real. He closed his eyes for a moment before darting downstairs when he heard a noise coming from the living room. There, stood tall and proud was the blue box that he had dreamed about for years which felt like forever. The man, who had told Sammy to call him 'Blaine' but the aliens and other beings they had met had called him 'The Doctor' stood there too; leaning on his blue box with his hands in his pockets and for the first time in a while, Sam felt sane and happy and safe again.

"You found me."

"Of course I did." Blaine smiled at him. Sam was taller than him now and it was strange at first, but Sam wasn't going to pass up the chance to touch the stars again, to be in the blue box again and fly through space again, and to be with his imaginary friend who came back for him.


End file.
